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Truth

“The Bible is not inerrant, but the eternal truths contained within it are”. If you are a student in either of my Bible study classes you have heard me say this before. What do I mean by this? There seems to be a lot of bickering among Christians and non-Christians alike about the Bible and whether or not we are to take it literally. We have a tendency to get hung up on wording. We labor over minute points. What I know for certain about the truth in scripture is this. The Bible, first and foremost, is the love story of an almighty and eternal God for His people. It begins when that dream is but a spark in His eye, a hope yet to be born. As the pages unfold, we find a story of astonishing depth and breadth- of incredible majestic heights and plunging depths of betrayal. Had these sacred truths never been recorded by his people in this endearing and enduring form it would be nonetheless The Truth in all it’s resplendent beauty.

However, it is this Truth contained within the pages which make the Bible a sacred text, not the way in which the story is particularly worded or told. Any time we as human readers of it attempt to change this revealed truth into browbeating legalism, we are guilty of destroying the sacred Truth in Love that the text is meant to reveal. Indeed, it is not the words on the pages themselves as they are written or expressed that are sacred, but rather the heart of God as revealed to the reader which comprises the holy and sacred. Just as Christ said of the Sabbath- man was not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath for man. So the message of the Bible was not designed to make His children a slave to legalism and restricted interpretations of other men, but rather to free them in truth and love to live a life redeemed by His grace. May each of us remember as we search and study scripture that it is not the text itself that we should revere, but rather the heart, mind, and soul of Love who created The Word Eternal who is worthy of all our praise. Amen.